Reflections

• I felt like I was quite time restricted with the amount of work we had to complete including the contextual studies, and the absence of our lecturer. All the work seemed to pile up at once making the stress levels quite intense.
• I felt I couldn’t connect with the Deconstruction project as much as id like to have done, which made the process of the projection of ideas quite difficult, It may have been that I didn’t fully understand the meaning behind the project, which consisted me to research too much on other artists to find extraneous influences to guide me in a certain direction.
• I really enjoyed the Reading and Responding project, I think it may have been because I thought that the self-directed approach to starting a project helped me explore more into what I personally liked which assisted me engage into something I really enjoyed.
• I have always been interested in textiles and using fabric in installations, as I have been induced through fine art courses, until this university degree. I didn’t struggle in the production of making the cushions in my final exhibition, although the time it took to curate them was tedious. The ending result I am extremely happy with although the only thing I would change to better the production would probably be changing the colour of the fabrics to a more ‘pastelly’ child friendly colours, just to make to installation more exciting!
• If I could make any changes to the exhibition as a whole, I would definitely add more illustrations and place them over a wider space. One of my ideas was to conduct a photo-shoot with children hugging the cushions to show interaction with my artwork and expressing the connection between the love of childhood memories, I would of loved to have carried out this idea and exhibited them as a sequential piece. Thus again the time restriction held me on my ideas and I couldn’t get permission off the parents of the children in time.
• If I had more time to improve my studies in my Deconstruction project, I would of made a large installation , with what I was going to explore of origami, origami was one of the many ways of visually communicating , and was widely loved in the Early Victorians, this would have been a perfect way of trying to fit an illustration as an installation.
• I will try and make more time for my studies and experiments for further projects, as I feel I haven’t given it my all with having a job. This I feel was the major issue throughout the entire year, and I think it has reflected in a bad way on the quantity on my bodies of work for each project.
• I have had a lot of positive feedback about my final exhibition and I intend to use my experiences and knowledge I have learnt from curating my projects, to upcoming exhibitions and further my marketing skills with promotion a little better, as I feel the promoting of this exhibition was a little scrambled, and the must of making business cards and flyers.
• Overall I think I have done well with the time I have been given, and I will take in the reflections of my peers and tutors to develop a more understanding approach to Contemporary art and Illustration.

Conclusion
I think this year has been a massive guidance into which specialism I would like to proceed to, with the help of peers and tutors I learnt an extensive amount of new ideas and different ways of using technology, such as digital experimentation on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator considering the facilities available. My exhibition was a complete success, with the presentation and curating of my work, and it really spoke out to me on a personal level.  I hope next year will give me as much if not more new experiences and knowledge to gain a professional career in my specialism.